'Glee' has some 'Back' aches

Monday

Jan 21, 2013 at 6:00 PMJan 21, 2013 at 6:47 PM

“Glee” is back on Thursday, and it's returning to a bit of a firestorm. The new episode will feature an acoustic version of the Sir-Mix-A-Lot early rap favorite, “Baby Got Back,” which has already been released online. The problem? The version bears a suspicious resemblance to the version recorded by musician Jonathan Coulton, including using original melodies he wrote for the version and at least one line he inserted in his cover, “Johnny C.'s in trouble.”

The Tweet unleashed an Internet-wide onslaught of music forensics, with numerous bloggers comparing the two versions. The website The Nerdist put together a particularly linear analysis, including posting the songs side-by-side:

Coulton's version

The 'Glee' version

“Play them back-to-back and see what you think,” writes Perry Michael Simon, for The Nerdist. “Keep in mind that Jonathan's version featured his own melody along with Sir Mix-a-Lot's lyrics, and when you listen to the 'Glee' version, that melody is … well, you compare and see. (And there's the “Jonny C” reference near the end that magically ended up in the 'Glee' version. Hmm. Double hmm.) Now, neither Jonathan nor 'Glee' wrote the original 'Baby Got Back,' but the melody on Jonathan's version is his, and the melody for Glee's version seems to be, um, Jonathan's, so, well, I'm not going to trot out my law degree and reactivate my bar membership for this post, but you be the judge.”

This isn't the first time “Glee” has been in this predicament. A while back, they used Greg Laswell's solemn, slowed-down rendition of Cyndi Lauper's “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” at which time Laswell tweeted, “Hmm. You know I never even thought of completely ripping off someone's COVER of a song, and I love stealing! Nice job @GLEEonFOX.”

The dispute with Laswell was eventually settled legally. Still, Coulton's accusation has spread across the Web like wildfire, with no official public response.

However, one of the show's music producers, Alex Anders, cryptically tweeted, “Some people can't see opportunity when it smacks them in the face.”